Objective Correlative

 

[alert-primary] Objective Correlative  [/alert-primary]

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        T. S. Eliot introduced the phrase, "Objective Correlative",  which was first used by the American painter and poet Washington Allston (1779–1843), rather casually in his essay "Hamlet and His Problems" (1919). Eliot later expressed his surprise at the phrase's subsequent popularity in literary criticism. 

        The only way to express emotion, according to Eliot, is to find a "objective correlate," or a group of things, a circumstance, or a series of events that will serve as the recipe for that specific emotion and cause the reader to feel the same way. 

         Eliot has argued for the "objective correlative" theory in reference to Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet, which he considers to be an artistic failure. Eliot made a convincing case that in this tragedy, the emotion of Prince Hamlet and the stimulant or excitant that sparked that emotion are incompatible. Prince Hamlet had never even seen his father's face. His minister Horatio was how he had learned about his father. Later, the advised him to visit King Hamlet's tomb at midnight to see the ghost of his father. Hamlet was shocked to learn that, contrary to popular belief, his father did not pass away from a snake bite when the ghost of his father suddenly materialised before him. He was spellbound when his father's ghost told him the true account of how he died. He revealed to Prince Hamlet that he had been the victim of a plot by his uncle, who had teamed up with his mother to poison his father in order to usurp the throne. The ghost also compelled Hamlet to exact revenge on Claudius, the perpetrator of the horrifying act of murder, by treating him similarly. Additionally, he advised Hamlet to show mercy to his mother and leave it up to God to decide what to do with her.
    Since the murder was not committed in front of Prince Hamlet's very eyes, the question arises as to whether or not his decision to punish Claudius was justified. whether his choice would be sanctioned by the law.
    Whether Hamlet's anger at the ghost of his father's advice and the ghost's counsel are compatible. Should he place his trust in someone he had never met before. The retaliatory actions taken by Hamlet are called into question by a slew of inquiries that come to mind. He would have had the right to exact revenge if this murder had been carried out in front of him while he was still undressed. There may have been a compatibility between the stimulus and excitant at this point, or between the murderous act and the retaliatory action taken. 

        The retaliatory action has a legitimate justification. T.S. Eliot has strong objections to this. He claims that Hamlet is a failure artistically because it is sorely lacking in objective correlative. If Hamlet follows the advice of the ghost of his father, the compatibility between stimulus and excitant will not be possible.
        Eliot concluded that Hamlet is an artistic failure despite the masterful dramatic craftsmanship due to the lack of conflict between emotion and object. Eliot believed that in order to achieve artistic perfection, emotion and object needed to be compatible. He wanted to apply his theory of objective correlative to other genres of literature as well.

      Since no situation or object is a "formula" for an emotion on its own, Eliot's formulation has frequently come under fire for misrepresenting how a poet actually composes. This is due to the argument that a poet's interpretation and use of an object or circumstance determines its emotional significance and impact. The popularity of Shelley's "Indian Serenade" and Eliot's idea of an outer correlative for inner feelings, which advocates definiteness, impersonality, and descriptive concreteness, can be attributed in part to their alignment with the New Criticism's campaign against vagueness of description and the direct expression of feelings in poetry.